


Rain or Shine

by BlueBadger63



Series: Trustedpartnershipping! [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Cuddling, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Talking, Trustedpartnershipping, cause there is literally no plot, if you hate fluff you're in the wrong place, just these two being sleepy and cuddly and talking about everything and nothing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-10-21 23:25:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17651684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueBadger63/pseuds/BlueBadger63
Summary: Rain is a rare sight in an Alolan winter, but Ash and Gladion make the best of it anyways.





	Rain or Shine

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, first things first is that they are not 10, that is bullshit on so many levels that flat-earthers are jealous.  
> Moving on, Shima Draws on Tumblr coined the name trustedpartnershipping, I can't take credit for the incredible name.  
> That all? We good? Great!

Gladion hadn't thought much about the dark clouds and humidity yesterday, rain was unusual in Alola's winters and humidity seemed constant. But of course, there had to be a thunderstorm on the day he'd put aside to spend with Ash. Fate was cruel in that way.

Rain fell in pounding sheets on Professor Kukui and Professor Burnet's house, he could hear waves roaring along the shore, frothy sea foam snatching swaths of sand with every churning motion. He could see the trees outside bending under the whipping winds, the window plastered with rainwater.

Still, the professors' house was warm and dry. Gladion hadn't really  _meant_ to spend the night, he'd just dropped by last night to see his boyfriend (the word feels a little new and foreign, but it still fills his stomach with butterfree and brings a smile to his face.) and it was nearly midnight before they realized the time, furthermore, Gladion was  _way_  too tired to just go back home (at least that's what he'd said).

They were still in their pj's, curled together on the tiny sofa bed Ash slept on, the blanket only halfway up their stomachs and both of them too sleepy to pull it up. Gladion laid on his back, staring at the wooden ceiling, Ash was on his side, resting his head on Gladion's arm, his own laid across his waist. Pikachu was curled into a ball on his other side, occasionally squeaking contentedly. All of their pokemon were sleeping, in fact. Silvally rested it's head on it's claws on a large blanket they'd set on the floor last night, Ash's lycanroc and torracat shared a pokemon bed that was probably better suited for them as a litten and rockruff, his own lycanroc and umbreon stretched across a few pillows they'd stolen. Rowlet perched on the back of the couch, snoring happy little coos.

Gladion's brain was warm and sluggish from sleep, he was only barely aware of anything around him, and probably would have dozed off again if there wasn't a low rumble of thunder to briefly jolt his senses awake. 

He glanced at the window again, and was greeted by a brief flash of lightning, "It's really comin' down out there." He muttered, more to himself than anyone else.

"I like it, kinda reminds me of Kanto" Ash's voice is muffled and drowsy, but he lifts his head enough to look at Gladion with that brilliant smile. He feels his face warm considerably, and hopes Ash doesn't notice.

"Did it rain a lot in Kanto?" He asks, because now he's genuinely curious. Ash doesn't talk much about his past adventures, and Gladion will take any excuse he can to hear Ash talk in that adorable sleepy voice again.

Ash nods, "Mm-hmm, mostly during the summer, that's the rainy season. It'd rain so much the roads flooded 'til the water covered at  _least_ an inch of the road. And Pallet Town's all dirt roads, y'know? There aren't any drains or gutters, you just kinda had to wait 'til the water washed downhill and the sun dried the mud. I used to hate it when I was little 'cause I couldn't go outside and look for pokemon, but you really start to miss the weirdest things when you've been away from home for a while. I actually really like thunderstorms, they're kinda calming." He reaches behind him and scratches behind Pikachu's ears, apparently lost in memories.

Gladion tried to imagine Ash as a child, looking out the window waiting for the rain to stop, and Ash's tiny home town nearly swamped by nonstop rain. The quiet continued for maybe an hour more, both of them slipping in and out of sleep. A familiar melody hummed through the warm air.

"What's that song?" Ash asked suddenly. Gladion stopped, he didn't realize he'd been humming, he must have been much more tired than he thought.

"Just a song I know, an old one." He's starts humming the tune again, not fully aware why.

"Can you sing it? Please?" Ash's voice is sugar sweet and his smile makes his head fuzzy (Ash has this effect on him, and is the only person he'll ever sing to, he blames it on the goofy smile he always gives him). Gladion hums the melody again, slowly remembering the heartbeat-like rhythm before singing quietly.

" _So can we be friends, sweetly._ _Before the mystery ends?_ _I love you more than the world can contain in its lonely and ramshackle head. T_ _here’s only a shadow of me; in a manner of speaking I’m dead._ _I’m holding my breath, m_ _y tongue on your chest._ _What can be said of my heart?_ _If history speaks, the kiss on my cheek, w_ _here there remains but a mark._ _Beloved my John, so I’ll carry on, c_ _ounting my cards down to one._ _And when I am dead, come visit my bed._ _My fossil is bright in the sun_." He can't remember who first taught him the song, his mother? His father? He doesn't know, it must have been forever ago.

"It sounds nice," Ash's voice grounds him again. "What's the song about?" The arm he's laying on is growing numb, but Gladion couldn't care less, not when Ash feels so  _real_ and  _here_ with him.

He needs a moment to catch his breath, then chase his half formed memories for the songs strange origins. "It's really old, and it went through a bunch of translations from Alolan to Unovan, then Unovan to a bunch of other languages, then back to Unovan. A bunch of the story it was based on is lost to time, it's so bad we don't even know the protagonists names. The best I could give you is just the generally accepted basics, and that's not much."

Ash rolls over, laying on top of Gladion and resting his head in the space between his head and shoulder. "Can you tell me anyway?" He's still tired, his movements are lethargic and his voice is still thick with drowsiness, but there's an undoubtable affection in in his casualness and the way he reaches back to (finally) pull the blankets up around them.

Gladion actually needs a moment there, to catch his breath, to control his heartbeat, to form an even vaguely coherent thought. Arceus save him, Ash was actually planning to kill him like this, wasn't he?

He wouldn't trade this moment for anything, though. Being with Ash was like he'd been wandering a cave his whole life, blind in the darkness and shivering in the cold, and then suddenly he'd been introduced to warmth and the sun, never knowing his burden until it had been lifted and never wanting to return to the cave.

Just feeling this way had been an elation that had kept him going for months, just looking at the sky and imagining Ash's smile had always returned that feeling. Actually having those feeling reciprocated, though, had nearly sent him over the moon.

What had Ash asked him? Right. The story. He wraps his now free arm around the other boy, pressing a quick kiss to his temple. "Don't say I didn't warn you. The story's about these two kids on their Island Challenge together, and their choices that lead them down different paths. One's basically your average protagonist, charismatic, kind and just your average nice guy-actually nice guy, for clarification. The other's pretty antisocial, snarky and just flat out rude at times. Basically, night and day, but they were apparently the best of friends. Over the years-"

"Years?" Ash interrupts, picking his head up to look at Gladion questioningly.

"Yeah, trials used to take a whole lot longer than they do today, and a bunch have been lost from colonization and the Totem's species going extinct. Anyway, the years go by and the grumpy kid starts getting bitter for some reason- a family member either died or his relationship with them took a steep downward spiral- and begins to blame his problems on those around him. The other kid is pretty distraught and is worried about his friend's new attitude. All the while though, they're both starting to fall in love with each other, and they're worried about losing each other to their differing paths. At some point, they do get together I think, and things are mostly okay until something happens, sources vary on what- don't give me that look, I warned you a bunch was lost- eventually, they have this giant fight, and they wind up damaging their relationship forever."

"What happens next?" Ash asks, " Is.. Is that it?"

Gladion shrugs, (as best as he can anyway) " Depends who you ask. And quit interrupting me." He chides, but he can't keep the smile off his face.

"The song's from the bitter one's point of view, expressing his regrets and how much he wished he'd done something about his feelings for the happier one-who's name probably isn't John, by the way, that's just a fill in name since no one knows their real names. Some people say that line about his death is literal, and he's apologizing from the grave and asking to be visited one last time. Others say he's alive, but wishing he were dead, because while the guy he loved moved on and married someone else, he's left alone and still bitter. The story's pretty popular, even though the endings bitter, there's even a folktale that if you go to Malie Garden in the middle of the night, you'll find his ghost, waiting and crying for what he'd lost." 

Ash is quiet for a moment while Gladion threads his fingers through his hair, lost in his thoughts. Then,"I like it, it kinda reminds me of a legend in Kanto, the whole being left behind and waiting thing."

"Well, since my throat now feels lined with sandpaper, can you tell me  _your_ myth that's probably going to make me question my life choices?" Ash laughs again, infectious as always. He rolls off of Gladion to lay at his side, still holding his hand.

"It's called Maiden's Peak, I actually traveled there when I began my journey."

"Why's it called Maiden's Peak?" Gladion asks, Ash raises his free hand to the ceiling, as if trying to grab his memories.

"After the legend. Two thousand years ago, there was this huge war, and a bunch of soldiers went to fight overseas. The Maiden was a young woman who was in love with one of the soldiers, she swore to wait on the cliffside until he returned, and even after he died, she kept waiting."

"Did she ever move on?"

He shook his head, "She waited on the cliffside for years, 'til she turned to stone,"

Gladion shuddered, "How'd that happen? Shouldn't someone have come and gotten her to come down?"

Ash shrugged, finally dropping his hand behind his head. "Depends who you ask" He echoed "Most people say she just wasted away on the cliffside, but other people say her grief became too much and she threw herself into the sea, some people even say the legendary birds took pity on her and turned her to stone so she could wait forever. Everyone seems to think the statue on the cliff is her, though."

"They turned her to stone so she could wait forever? That seems kinda... cruel." Gladion admits. Whenever he tries to imagine a lonely woman waiting, all he can see is his mother, throwing herself into her research after his father's disappearance.

"People thought it was a gift." Ash says, returning Gladion to Earth (had his eyes been stinging?) "She wanted to stay there and wait until the guy she loved came back, and they granted her that wish, weirdly, but hey, her statue's still there."

"You said you went there, did you see the statue?"

"Yeah! It was actually pretty freaky, 'cause there was this wild ghastly going around pretending to be her ghost to keep the legend alive. It was actually hypnotizing people to fall in love with the fake ghost girl-my friend Brock was one of them- and selling _ofuda_ to make money, for some reason."

"Selling  _what_?"

"Oh, right, uh, hold on I'm not sure how to translate this one." Ash's nose crinkles cutely when he's in thought, his brows furrows as he tries to translate from his first language.

"The best I can come up with is stickers," He admits, "They're these stickers that are supposed to keep away bad things,"

"Bad things?"

"Yeah, like diseases and bad luck, the ones the ghastly sold to us-It was disguised as an old woman- were supposed to keep away spirits like the maiden. 'Course they didn't work though, I don't think ghost pokemon are affected by them. Looking back on it, the only reason we actually escaped was because the sun came up, and it hated the sun for some reason?" Ash's voice is getting scratchy from talking, and hearing his sleepy voice mixed with it is almost an Arceus sent gift. Gladion drinks in the sight of him, it's so rare to see Ash tired when he's always so full of fire and on the move like just mixed an energy drink with an espresso.

"Has anyone ever told you you're a danger magnet? Because I'm saying that right now. You are a danger magnet." Ash laughs loud enough to rouse pikachu then, who squeaks unhappily at being woken and moves above Ash's head to resume it's nap.

"Sorry buddy," Ash reaches up with his free hand and scratches behind pikachu's ears, "The rest of the festival was fun though! We did this old Kantonian dance in traditional clothes and at the end, we set paper lanterns into the ocean"

"Paper lanterns?"

"Yeah, they're supposed to guide spirits to the afterlife, and the guy the maiden loved to her." Suddenly, Ash's raises his hand-the one still entwined with Gladion's- up to the ceiling, as though trying to reach spirits in the air with him. "So they can find each other." He continues, "And go to the afterlife together."

Gladion studies their hands, still clasped together, still held to the light of the ceiling. Compared to Ash, he was terrifyingly pale, it seemed to run in the family as much as the platinum blonde hair and eerily pale green eyes.  _Ghostly_ , he'd heard a foundation employee whisper once, when she thought he couldn't hear.

_Pale skin. Pale hair. Pale eyes._

_Ghostly._

He turned his head to look at Ash, who was still staring at the ceiling. Ash was a lot of things; lively and hyper and sometimes a disaster with legs, but _ghostly_ was not one of them. His skin was tanned and freckle dotted from years of adventure, his brown eyes shown with a lively light, his black hair slightly bleached dark brown from his time under the Alolan sun. No, Ash  _was_ the sun, and Gladion was the moon. And maybe that was why they fit so perfectly together, like puzzle pieces.

And maybe that's why when Ash finally drops their hands and turns to look at him, Gladion can't help but kiss him like it's the last time he ever will.  _The maiden and her beloved, the two trial goers,_ He thinks through it, _Did they know? Did they know which kiss would be their last? Could they sense that it was over that?_ He doesn't know, and so he settles for what matters, him and Ash and their lips pressed together.

When he pulls away, Ash looks starstruck. Completely dumbfounded with hearts in his eyes. Gladion takes a moment to regain his breath, "That was for telling such a sad story"

Ash's face cracks into a luminous grin, "Remind me to tell sad stories more, then"

Now it's Gladion's turn to laugh until his partner wakes, Silvally grunts at him grumpily from the floor.

There's a flyaway bedhead strand of hair in Ash's face, and Gladion pushes it away. " Seriously though, what's with the stories about losing people you love? I'm nihilistic enough, you know."

Ash shrugs again,"I think it's kinda like a message, y'know the whole  _hold on to what you have 'cause you don't know when you'll lose it_ thing."  _Hold on to what you have_ _._

_And I will,_ Gladion thinks.  _And_   _I am. Starting with you._

The two of them roll onto their sides, facing each other. Gladion wraps an arm around his boyfriend ( _Boyfriend_ _,_ his mind is still fuzzy, delirious with happiness) and rests his chin on his head.

Two completely different stories from two completely different cultures that share such a similar ending. The world really was smaller than he thought.

" _Arigato,"_ Ash says suddenly, and when Gladion gives him a questioning look, his face reddens slightly, "It means  _thank you._ Thank you, Gladion, for... just, thanks. For everything."

It's vague and confusing and just so completely  _Ash_ , but somehow Gladion understands, "Well,  _mahalo_ to you too then," Ash doesn't ask what it means, he doesn't need to at this point, he just glows like the sun and smiles at him like he's the only person in existence.

_I love you,_ Gladion thinks suddenly.  _You're stubborn and naive and dense as a brick but I love you, because you'll always see the best in everyone and do everything it takes to help them._ It's too soon to say that, he knows, they're too young to be dropping "I love you"'s to anyone but their parents. 

Somehow, Gladion doesn't mind. Because here in Professor Kukui and Professor Burnet's house, in this tiny sofa bed with Ash, he's never felt more sure that they have all the time in the world to be together.

_We're not like the people in the legends, we have time, time we'll make the best of._ He looks out the window, splattered with rain. _Rain or shine._  He knows it, as easily as he knows his name or his favorite color. They have time.

The rain still pounds outside, the sound of thunder in the distance continues. Ash is snoring now, fast asleep. Gladion can't help but smile, pressing a soft kiss to his hair before the lullaby of a storm soothes him to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> If you were curious, the song Gladion sings is snippet from "John My Beloved" which I listened to on repeat while writing this cause it got me in that sleepy happy mood that I use to write fluff ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ (only that one verse really works though)


End file.
